Innovation News

Mount Laurel, NJ - Burlington County Human Services Director Anna Payanzo Cotton will lead Rowan College at Burlington County’s (RCBC) workforce development and lifelong learning programs as vice president. “Anna Payanzo Cotton is a proven leader and team builder who is widely-respected throughout Burlington County and our region,” RCBC President Paul Drayton said. “In her role as Human Services Director, Ms. Payanzo Cotton led the county’s workforce development programs and worked closely with Rowan College at Burlington County in many capacities, including serving as one of the chief architects of the innovative Workforce Development Institute.

​“Ms. Payanzo Cotton is uniquely qualified to provide the strategic vision for this important initiative and I am so proud that she will be the college’s first Vice President of Workforce Development and Lifelong Learning and the final piece of a very talented senior leadership team at RCBC,” Drayton added.

Payanzo Cotton has served as county Human Services Director since January 2013. She was responsible for developing and managing a coordinated human services delivery system that includes several units focused on aging and ability, behavioral health, youth, community development and housing, employment and training, and military and veterans’ services.

“Anna has done an incredible job strengthening relationships within the county and our many community service partners,” said Burlington County Freeholder Director Mary Ann O’Brien. “We will miss Anna in our Human Services department, but are happy she will remain part of our Burlington County team at Rowan College at Burlington County. Everyone in the county looks forward to working with Anna in a new capacity and expects she will bring great success to the county through the Workforce Development Institute.”

At RCBC, Payanzo Cotton will lead the institute, which includes business outreach and incubation services, corporate training, personal development, the Retired Senior and Volunteer Program, educational program development, grants, career and placement services, military and veterans services and workforce development.

“Helping people through workforce development is a real passion and I am excited to officially join the Workforce Development Institute that is becoming a national model on how education and government can partner to more effectively deliver workforce training and services,” Payanzo Cotton said.

“With the Workforce Development Institute, Rowan University partnership and modernization of the Mount Laurel campus, Rowan College at Burlington County is quickly becoming the premier institution in our region,” Payanzo Cotton continued. “I look forward to working with all of the college’s talented students, faculty and staff who are making that vision a reality.”

Payanzo Cotton will begin Monday, Dec. 14, completing a new leadership team implemented by President Drayton that places priority on academics, student success and workforce development. The structure was unveiled this summer, along with an announcement that the college will create the ultimate campus experience in Mount Laurel. That followed the college rebranding itself as Rowan College at Burlington County after a new partnership with Rowan University that creates a path to a $30,000 university degree for programs taken online or on the Mount Laurel campus.

Prior to serving as Burlington County Human Services Director, Payanzo Cotton served as director of program development, then housing, at Oaks Integrated Care, a mental health specialist at McLean Hospital and a teaching advisor and office assistant at the Derek Bok Center for Teaching and Learning at Harvard University.

She graduated magna cum laude in social anthropology from Harvard University and holds a master’s of public health from the University of Pennsylvania.